U.S. secretly backs standby U.N. army

Joseph Farah is founder, editor and chief executive officer of WND. He is the author or co-author of 13 books that have sold more than 5 million copies, including his latest, "The Restitution of All Things: Israel, Christians, and the End of the Age." Before launching WND as the first independent online news outlet in 1997, he served as editor in chief of major market dailies including the legendary Sacramento Union.

No wonder Secretary of State Madeline Albright was out attacking U.N.
critics recently. No wonder U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was in
Hollywood recently courting celebrities like Magic Johnson to carry water
for him. No wonder the U.N. and Clinton administration have been putting on
a full-court press in Congress for the U.S. to pay up dues for which it is
supposedly in arrears.

You just knew something big was going on. The U.N. was up to something.
The groundwork was being laid for a major development toward world
governance. Another nail was being hammered into the coffin of U.S.
national sovereignty. And here it is.

Last fall the United States government voluntarily and secretly
contributed $200,000 toward the establishment of a U.N. trust fund to
finance and mobilize a worldwide standby army for “peacekeeping”
operations.

The State Department claims to have notified Congress of this investment
of your tax dollars, but Capitol Hill sources questioned by the Washington
Times said they did not recall any such request from the Clinton
administration. When the paper asked the State Department to produce
documents proving such notification, it refused — saying such official
communications are “privileged.”

In other words, the administration doesn’t believe U.S. taxpayers have a
right to know where their money is being spent. If you think that assertion
is strong, consider the statement of a U.N. secretariat official who told
the Washington Times the administration gave “backdoor support” for the
plan because of political sensitivity over creating an army under U.N.
command and political authority.

And don’t let the relatively small amount of money fool you into
thinking this is not a significant development. It represents a foot in the
door — an opening the administration and U.N. officials hope will force
Congress to allocate more and more to a chillingly unconstitutional and
ill-advised goal.

“This is a president who somehow thinks he’s a king or a dictator or a
one-person government, and he’s not,” said Sen. Rod Grams, a Minnesota
Republican and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on
international operations.

What the U.N. is establishing is a system of military reserves — forces
that could be called up on short notice with the approval of the Security
Council. Some 72 nations have already signed agreements to provide the U.N.
troops or capabilities — infantry battalions, engineers, artillery,
medical, logistical support and air transport, according to officials at
the world body.

“Each country maintains the troops and equipment within their own armed
forces,” explained U.N. spokesman Hiro Ueki. “It’s not considered a
standing army for the U.N.”

Can you imagine the United States training and maintaining a U.N.
Rapidly Deployable Mission Headquarters to be deployed at the whim, not of
the president and the Congress, but of the U.N. secretary-general? Worse
yet, can you imagine this force being comprised and led by a bunch of
foreign mercenaries?

You can see just by how this development was handled that Congress is
not going to safeguard the interests of the American people. This first
step was taken by the administration last September. Only now, thanks to
some intrepid investigative reporting by George Archibald of the Washington
Times do any of us even know about it. Congress pleads ignorance. Some
members speak boldly about opposing it, even while the majority in the
Congress is at this very moment preparing to make a deal on paying $817
million in “back dues” to the U.N. — money that is not really owed.

So, tell me, do you still think the “black helicopter crowd” is out of
its collective mind? Do you think there might be at least a grain of truth
in all the sightings of U.N. military equipment spotted in various
locations around the United States? Do you still believe those U.N.
Heritage Areas being declared in national parks throughout the country are
simply innocent markings that have no meaning to the sovereign American
people? Are you still unconcerned about the U.N. posturing over global gun
control? The World Trade Organization … the World Criminal Court …
what’s behind the next curtain?

See, the problem never has been the U.N. alone. The real problem is the
plotting by U.S. politicians in Washington with U.N. officials to extend
control and authority over our lives. It’s happening, folks. Wake up.

There can be no compromise with the criminal conspiracy of the
world-government crowd. There’s only one solution — the withdrawal of the
United States from the United Nations. I know it sounds like too much to
ask in the current political climate. But accept no alternative. Anything
less will signal the slow, torturous, eventual and inevitable strangulation
of freedom in the United States and around the world.